Explainer | How are China’s 20th Communist Party congress delegates chosen?

The selection process is different from elections in the West and requires multiple rounds of recommendations and reviews

Candidates must include ethnic minorities, farmers and ‘model workers’, but results often reflect elite preferences, according to Chinese politics scholar

Reading Time:3 minutes

Delegates will gather at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for China’s 20th party congress next week. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:30pm, 11 Oct 2022Updated: 11:53pm, 11 Oct 2022

The 2,296 delegates to China’s 20th Communist Party congress, set to convene in Beijing on Sunday, have the task of endorsing plans that will determine the trajectory of the world’s second-largest economy over the next five years.

They will also endorse a list of members of the Central Committee, a body of more than 300 top party members, including President Xi Jinping, who is set to secure a third term as the party’s leader during the congress.

The delegates, who represent more than 96 million Communist Party members nationwide, were chosen through a process that is much different from elections in the West and requires a series of recommendations and reviews by the party.

In November, the organisation department, which manages personnel affairs within the party, announced that about 2,300 delegates would be chosen from 38 electoral units representing provinces, state-owned enterprises, the central financial sector and central authorities.

Between November and July, the delegates were put through a five-stage “rigorous and meticulous election process”, according to state news agency Xinhua.

First, each electoral unit’s organisation department nominated a pool of candidates.

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